Chinese officials are evaluating a possible sale of TikTok to Elon Musk, Bloomberg reports. Beijing wants US operations of the controversial app to remain in ByteDance’s hands, but with sanctions looming on January 19, officials are looking for a solution.
Sources who spoke to Bloomberg revealed that Chinese officials are discussing contingency plans for TikTok as part of a broader discussion on how to work with President-elect Donald Trump. He is expected to appoint Elon Musk to his administration as soon as he steps into the White House later this month.
One of the scenarios discussed involves Musk’s ex acquiring TikTok US and running the business together. The video app has more than 170 million users in the United States, and it could boost X’s effort to attract advertisers. Musk also founded xAI, an artificial intelligence company that can benefit from the massive amounts of data generated by TikTok.
Our statement on the enactment of the TikTok ban:
This unconstitutional law is a ban on TikTok and we will challenge it in court. We believe that the facts and the law are clearly on our side, and that we will ultimately prevail. The truth is that we have invested billions of dollars to keep America…
– TikTok Policy (@TikTokPolicy) 24 April 2024
It appears that ByteDance may have no role in the final decision. Bloomberg also reported that it was unclear whether Musk, TikTok, ByteDance or any government officials had actually had any talks about such a deal.
Representatives for Musk did not respond to requests for comment. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiaqun declined to comment, while a representative for ByteDance said the company “cannot be expected to comment on pure speculation.”
The Chinese government controls ByteDance’s operations through so-called “golden shares” in a subsidiary. Beijing’s export rules prevent Chinese companies from selling their software algorithms, the most controversial part of TikTok.
The platform’s US operations are valued at approximately $40 billion.
Given how difficult it would be to divest TikTok’s US operations, the final decision remains an economic and geopolitical nightmare. Donald Trump himself said that he wanted the ban to be postponed so that he could participate in negotiations for a possible solution to keeping the app alive.
